Omaruru gem dealer jailed for 15 years for rape

THE year 2007 started on an off-key note for an Omaruru gemstone dealer, after he was convicted of rape and sentenced to a 15-year prison term last week.

Magistrate Gert Retief found Benold Stanley Geieb (31) guilty of rape in the Swakopmund Regional Court on Wednesday. In terms of the Combating of Rape Act of 2000, Geieb was at risk of being sentenced to a mandatory jail term of at least 10 years – but, having heard of Geieb’s record of previous criminal convictions stretching back to 1994, Magistrate Retief sentenced him to 15 years’ imprisonment instead.Geieb’s criminal record includes previous convictions on charges of assault, theft, assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm, and housebreaking.Geieb is currently still serving a jail term for housebreaking.He received that prison sentence, which he is set to serve out by June this year, after he was arrested on a charge of rape in June 2003.Geieb was accused of raping a 15-year-old girl at his house at Omaruru on the evening of May 22 2003.He denied the charge and claimed that the accusations stemmed from jealousy that he said was aroused by his financial success as a miner of and dealer in semi-precious gemstones.During Geieb’s trial, the girl who was alleged to have been raped by him told the court that Geieb dragged her from a shop at Omaruru to his house on the evening in question.She screamed for help on the way, and someone who heard her cries went to alert her mother.Inside Geieb’s house, the girl claimed, he raped her.Her mother had in the meantime rushed to Geieb’s house, where she and other witnesses called out to the girl.Upon this, she emerged from the house – naked and crying, the court was told.Geieb vanished after the girl had been removed from his house.He was arrested only a month later, and has been in custody since then.Legal Aid Directorate counsel Duard Kesslau represented Geieb during his trial.Public Prosecutor Tania Tait conducted the prosecution.In terms of the Combating of Rape Act of 2000, Geieb was at risk of being sentenced to a mandatory jail term of at least 10 years – but, having heard of Geieb’s record of previous criminal convictions stretching back to 1994, Magistrate Retief sentenced him to 15 years’ imprisonment instead.Geieb’s criminal record includes previous convictions on charges of assault, theft, assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm, and housebreaking.Geieb is currently still serving a jail term for housebreaking.He received that prison sentence, which he is set to serve out by June this year, after he was arrested on a charge of rape in June 2003.Geieb was accused of raping a 15-year-old girl at his house at Omaruru on the evening of May 22 2003.He denied the charge and claimed that the accusations stemmed from jealousy that he said was aroused by his financial success as a miner of and dealer in semi-precious gemstones.During Geieb’s trial, the girl who was alleged to have been raped by him told the court that Geieb dragged her from a shop at Omaruru to his house on the evening in question.She screamed for help on the way, and someone who heard her cries went to alert her mother.Inside Geieb’s house, the girl claimed, he raped her.Her mother had in the meantime rushed to Geieb’s house, where she and other witnesses called out to the girl.Upon this, she emerged from the house – naked and crying, the court was told.Geieb vanished after the girl had been removed from his house.He was arrested only a month later, and has been in custody since then.Legal Aid Directorate counsel Duard Kesslau represented Geieb during his trial.Public Prosecutor Tania Tait conducted the prosecution.